Red and Black Hockey

Entries with the tag: philadelphia flyers

On Friday night, the Hurricanes sent Rod Brind’Amour’s sweater to the rafters, where it will hang alongside Ron Francis and Glen Wesley. New NHL regulations dictate that sweater retirement ceremonies must take place before the pre-game skate, and the pre-game skate can be no more than 30 minutes before puck drop. So the ceremony was at 7:00 and the game at 8:00.

The ceremony was excellent and Roddy handled it very well. He doesn’t enjoy being the center of attention, but he handled himself and the spotlight quite well. During the pre-game skate, every player from both teams wore special sweaters with Brind’Amour’s name and number. It was appropriate since Brindy played all but a handful of games for the two franchises. Still, I thought it was a display of tremendous class from the Flyers.

Carolina had great jump coming out of the gates, and they got off to an early 2-0 lead. Philly pushed back, killed a ton of penalties, climbed back in it and got an equalizing goal late in the third. It looked like the game was headed to overtime, but Erik Cole brought the over-capacity crowd to its feet with his second game-winning goal in the last three games.

On Thursday, the Hurricanes lost 2-1 in Philadelphia. Both Flyers goals were third period power play markers and Carolina’s lone goal was off the stick of Tuomo Ruutu.

Carolina hadn’t given up a power play goal since January 24—six games ago.

Cam Ward didn’t have the best of nights. While Danny Briere’s game-winning goal was a very good one, Jeff Carter’s was a bit soft. Ward actually made the stop, but couldn’t control the puck. It fluttered in off his glove for the first goal of the game 18 seconds into the third frame. Ward only made 23 stops and gave up one bad one.

On the other end, Brian Boucher was really good in making 31 saves, including 15 in the third period.

The Hurricanes entered the 2010 Entry Draft with a league-high eleven picks. Although they didn’t make a big move to parlay some of the three second rounders into an additional first rounder, they were busy making trades with those draft picks. I’ll analyze the draft selections later. For now, I’ll give a rundown of the trades that brought a forward prospect, a free agent forward prospect and a defenseman who may be NHL-ready.

Frustration. That’s probably the best word for the feelings that Hurricanes fans have right now. Opening night is like a major holiday for a lot of people, and there were a lot of things to be excited about. However, when the game was over and the Hurricanes were on the wrong end of a 2-0 score, Canes fans weren’t smiling on their way out of the RBC Center.

Fans marveled at the new spiffy HD scoreboard. We marveled at the ridiculously self-indulgent stage setup for U2’s Saturday concert in Carter-Finley Stadium (adjacent to RBC). We liked what we saw from the new guys. The rest left some things to be desired.

While opening night is just one game, there’s an interesting stat which suggests that Carolina will not be making a deep playoff run in the spring.

On Thursday night, the Hurricanes and Flyers will wrap up their season series in Philly. All four games have been played in a 16 day span. The Flyers won both games in Raleigh, and the Canes won an overtime game in Philly on the day after Thanksgiving.

Carolina will be wearing their alternate black uniforms tonight, and will also be wearing them on Saturday at Rangers. So far, Carolina is 3-2-0 in the alternates, and this will be the first time they’ve been worn on the road.

There is some good news on the blueline. Dennis Seidenberg will return to the lineup. The flipside is that Anton Babchuk is going on the IR

On Saturday, the Flyers handed the Hurricanes their third straight loss and their sixth in the last seven games. Also, they scored their eleventh shorthanded goal of the season, and Jeff Carter scored his league leading 19th goal to win it in overtime.

Sergei Samsonov scored his third marker of the season early in the third period on a power play. Although the Canes are still struggling with the power play, they have managed to score PP goals in two straight games. It’s a small step, I know.

To add to Carolina’s injury woes, defenseman Nic Wallin left the game in the third period with what appeared to be a left ankle injury. No call-up has been made for today’s game, but it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll play. Add Wallin to the ever-growing list of injured defensemen. Frantisek Kaberle. Tim Gleason. Dennis Seidenberg. And of course goalie Cam Ward and winger Scott Walker are still out. So far, the Hurricanes have 104 man-games lost to injury.

On Saturday, the red-hot Flyers will come to Raleigh for the third meeting of the season. So far, each team has won in the other’s building. Philly is 7-1-2 in their last 10 games, which is the third best mark in the league for that “last 10” category. Conversely, Carolina is just 4-6-0 in the last 10 games, putting them at 25th in that category.

Conboy played in 19 games with the Canes last season, notching five assists and 60 PIMs. Borer played in 11 games and registered one goal and two assists. Conboy is also pretty well known for a couple of instances when he “went bananas” in AHL play. Both, incidentally, against the Flyers AHL team. He was suspended eight games for his role in a line brawl during the Calder Cup playoffs last spring. This season, he was accused of biting Steve Downie in a fight. In the latter, he received a boatload of minutes, but no suspension.

Is it sheer coincidence that Conboy was called up to play against the Flyers? Downie was traded to the Lightning for Matt Carle, so he won’t be a factor.

On Friday afternoon, Carolina stole a 3-2 overtime result from the Flyers to take the back end of the home-and-home. More importantly, they move to within one point of the first place Capitals in the Southeast division.

After a flat first period, the Hurricanes got second period markers from Patrick Dwyer, who scored his first NHL goal, and also from Tuomo Ruutu, who has been Carolina’s best player of late.

The Flyers, who were wearing their third sweaters, tied it in the second and also had a goal taken away for having too many men on the ice.

A scoreless third period forced overtime, and Sergei Samsonov potted the game winner for Carolina at 3:53 of the bonus frame. This was SerSam’s second goal of the season, which is far less than Canes fans were expecting at the quarter pole, but he’s been looking good/

Tonight will be the back end of a home-and-home with the Flyers, and the second of four games between the team in a sixteen day window. I’ve seen this kind of overload in intra-division play, but never lout of division. Today’s game is a 1pm matinee. Historically, Carolina hasn’t fared well in holiday matinee games, but hopefully they’ll buck that trend.

Defenseman Frantisek Kaberle has been activated from the IR and will hopefully return to action.

Carolina has lost three games in a row and is three points back of Washington in the SE division. Somehow, the Hurricanes are in eighth place in the East, but they haven’t looked much like a playoff team. Meanwhile, the Flyers, who are two standings points ahead of the Canes, are winners of six straight games.

The Hurricanes will host the Flyers today for the front end of a home-and-home that will wrap up on Friday. Then the two teams will meet again in Raleigh next Saturday, and in Philly the following Thursday.
Four games in 16 days. Ridiculous.